ANTIQUE DECORATIVE PLATE

The Rowteights have been away for a long weekend at Shrewsbury Folk Festival, where many photos were taken, and much rain fell on canvas (or whatever modern tents are made of - we slept under it for three nights).

These photos are of a Border Morris side called the Shropshire Bedlams. This form of English folk dance is little understood (or liked!) by most English people, but for the benefit of any visitors to this stream from abroad, here is some stuff which explains the tradition (according to this explanation - there are many).

I can speak to the efficacy of the disguise by black-face mentioned below. Mrs Rowteight and I had engaged this guy in conversation during a gig the night before when he was in 'civvies'. We didn't recognise him at all in his kit, until he came up to us afterwards and started talking to us again. It was astonishing.

The tradition comes from the English counties on the Welsh border - principally Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Shropshire. Sadly, the combined effects of the industrial revolution and the Great War caused the tradition to die out in the early part of the 20th century. Thankfully, it was recorded by a number of folk music collectors before it finally disappeared.

When this form of morris was revived in the 1970s, it was confusingly named "Welsh Border Morris" - this was very unfortunate as it is an English tradition, and and has little to do with welsh culture.

Border Morris is one of several styles of morris dance, which today include Cotswold, North-West, Molly (East Anglia), Rapper (North-East) and Long-sword – each associated with an area of England.

Traditional forms of ritual dancing are believed to go back a very long way, and its hard to know how they originated, as the dancers were neither wealthy nor literate. Morris dancing has been documented for the last 500 years or so, and it appears that many towns and villages had their own "side".

The Border Morris dances were mainly performed in the winter by farm labourers and fishermen (on the Severn) as a means of earning a little extra money when work was scarce – it was a form of begging, and as such it was illegal. This is usually offered as the explanation for the tradition of blacked-up faces as a means of disguise.

However, people have been painting their faces for a long time, and this may not be the original explanation. Blackened faces were used as a form of disguise in the "Rebecca Riots" in South Wales in the 1830's, which were a protest against toll roads, which also involved mean dressing as women. They may have been revived following the Minstrel Shows of the early 19th century. Did the face-blacking continue through the Puritan era following the Civil War? How was it treated following the Black Act of 1723 which treated face blacking as an intent to commit a crime, with harsh penalties?

It is entirely possible that face-blacking is a form of guising that goes back to ritual or religious origins, but today’s dancers explain that they enjoy a freedom from inhibition when in kit, and it's possible that the tradition survived simply because people enjoyed it.

The "kit" was traditionally anything that looked eccentric – sometimes parts of an army uniform, or a womens dress, or simply turning a jacket inside-out and decorating with ribbons. The latter is interpreted today as a rag jacket, covered with strips of cloth, or tatters.

The dances took their names from the village teams that danced them, such as White Ladies Aston, Pershore, Dilwyn and Much Wenlock, although these are now augmented by modern additions. The contemporary country dances were also adapted for display purposes, with additional or changed figures. Many Border Morris dances make use of a large stick – usually of ash or hazel – and the stick-clashing adds to the noise and spectacle that makes this form of dance attractive. Traditionally almost all forms of morris were danced exclusively by men. It is not clear why women were excluded, but this appears to have contributed to the robust style of most Morris dancing.

Finally got a house in my skybox and got it all decorated up. Since I can't really stay away from color I decided to go all out. It's country whimsy meets contemporary, I guess? :x

Original image is larger.